This invention relates to tantalum-copper alloys and a method for making these alloys.
Heretofore, to the best of our knowledge, alloys of tantalum and copper have not been known. This is due to the difficulty of melting tantalum and copper together when the melting temperature of tantalum is significantly higher than the temperature at which copper boils. Furthermore, the solubility of tantalum in copper has been reported to be only about 0.009 atom percent at 1200.degree. C.
It has been speculated that, a wire formed of tantalum-copper alloy would have substantially greater tensile strength than plain copper wire, while retaining the current-carrying capacity of the copper. However, there have been no tantalum-copper alloys available to test this theory, because there has been no known method for preparing such an alloy.